Matthew Murdock (Earth-616)
, Defenders, S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel Knights, , Hand leader, former partner of Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) | Relatives = Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock (father, deceased); Maggie Murdock (mother); Milla Donovan (ex-wife); | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Hell's Kitchen, New York, New York, Shadowland (formerly) | Gender = Male | Height = 6'0" | Weight = 200 lbs (91 kg) | Eyes = Blue | Hair = Red | UnusualFeatures = | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Divorced | Occupation = Adventurer, vigilante, Attorney at Law, Leader of the Hand (formerly) | Education = Undergraduate at Columbia University, Law School at Harvard | Origin = Became Daredevil when he got his powers by losing his sight at the age of 12, and because a criminal named The Fixer had his father Jack Murdock murdered because he wouldn't throw a boxing match right before Matt graduated law school. | PlaceOfBirth = New York City, New York State | Creators = Stan Lee; Bill Everett | First = Daredevil Vol 1 #1 | HistoryText = Early Years Daredevil's life is a mix of joy and tragedy. The story of Matt Murdock began with his father. Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock raised his son alone, claiming Matt's mother had died. Jack wanted his son to be more successful than him. He impressed upon Matt the need to constantly study instead of playing sports with other kids. Jack hoped that Matt would become a doctor or a lawyer instead of an "uneducated pug" like himself. This led the neighborhood kids to taunt the "cowardly" Matt as "Daredevil." Matt took out his frustrations by secretly training in his father's gym. One day, Matt saw a blind man walking towards an oncoming truck. Matt pushed the man out of the way. The truck crashed and a radioactive isotope spilled out, striking Matt across the face and blinding him. While recovering in the hospital, Matt discovered his hearing, smell, taste, and touch were amplified to superhuman degrees. He also developed a "radar sense" that formed a mental picture of his surroundings . During his time in the hospital, Matt was visited by a nun wearing a gold cross. Long thought dead, Matt would one day find his mother, "Maggie", was living as a nun. Matt wouldn't know who this woman was for many years. A few months later, Matt received training from the ninja master Stick. From Stick, Matt learned how to control his new abilities and honed his skills in acrobatics and martial arts. Meanwhile, Jack Murdock was desperate to get fights. He reluctantly joined with a crooked fight promoter known as "The Fixer." The Fixer set up Jack to be a heavyweight contender, just to have him take a dive. Jack refused and won his fight. Later that night, Jack Murdock was shot dead by The Fixer and his men. The now orphaned Matt searched for his father's killers. He finally found the Fixer's gang and and punished them severely. He chased down and confronted the Fixer, who pulled a gun on Matt. Before he could fire it, the Fixer suffered heart attack and died . Matt tracked down Angelo, the last man remaining responsible for his father's death. He found him at a brothel. Matt confronted him but was attacked by the women who worked there. In the melee, Matt knocked one of the women out of the window and thought she was dead (She would return as Typhoid Mary). He ran away in horror over what he had done. He went searching for Stick, but Stick abandoned him because of his actions. Matt continued to study and entered Columbia Law School. At Columbia, Matt met and fell in love with Elektra Natchios. It was a first love for both of them. When Elektra's father was accidentally killed by police, she retreated from the world and Matt . Matt earned his law degree and landed a job at a major law firm. He returned to Hell's Kitchen and to his father's old gym. There he met a young girl staying there named Mickey. They got close to each other and he trained her. He also ran into Foggy Nelson while he was there. He helped him with some of his cases. Meanwhile, Mickey ended up being kidnapped by people working for the Kingpin. Matt tracked them down and rescued Mickey. Because of that he missed an appointment for work and was fired. Matt opened a practice, Nelson and Murdock, with Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. Karen Page was hired by Foggy as their secretary. Karen was attracted to Matt, and found it a pity that such a wonderful, handsome man could be so handicapped. Matt made a yellow and black costume out of his father's old boxing robes and continued to fight crime as Daredevil . Daredevil Though some of his early enemies were considered laughable, (Matador , Stilt Man , Leap Frog), Daredevil gathered an impressive and dangerous rogues gallery. Electro was the first costumed villain Daredevil faced . Also, in one of his first encounters, he clashed with his long-time nemesis the Owl . In his first team-up with another superhero, he assisted Spider-Man in defeating the Circus of Crime . His next opponent, the Purple Man was a spy for a foreign country. When he was accidentally doused with experimental chemicals, they turned his skin purple and gave him the power to control people's minds. His power wasn't very effective against Daredevil since it worked best when people could see him . Mister Fear seemed like a natural enemy for a "Man Without Fear". He was a wax museum curator obsessed with bringing his statues to life. Instead, he discovered a gas that filled people with terror. He used this gas as Mister Fear to commit daring crimes . He also faced the Sub-Mariner during his early days as a hero. Even though he could not defeat the Atlantean, Daredevil refused to give up, which greatly impressed Namor . In his civilian identity, Murdock was very successful as a lawyer. Amongst his more prominent clients were the Fantastic Four, whom he also aided as Daredevil in their fight against Doctor Doom when they temporarily lost their powers . He was also present at the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, both as Matt Murdock and Daredevil . Murdock moved to San Francisco with Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow. Although their relationship later ended, they remained friends. But sometimes Natasha wished they were more. While living in San Francisco, Matt worked for another law firm. He left when he realized his bosses were more concerned with their careers than with their clients. Bullseye was the world's deadliest assassin. He had perfect aim, a backbone made of unbreakable metal, and the uncanny gift to turn anything into a weapon. His hatred for Daredevil stemmed from his many defeats. Matt was reunited with Elektra under the worst circumstances. After college, Elektra became an assassin. She had trained with an evil ninja cult called The Hand. Although she left The Hand, she had become cold and violent. Elektra was killed by Bullseye. Fortunately, ninja magic and Murdock's love brought her back to life and "cleansed her spirit". She moved to a remote mountain retreat to live with The Chaste, the Hand's heroic counterpart. Heather Glenn, Matt's one-time fiance, was the heiress to Glenn industries. After Elektra's death, Matt proposed to Heather. He then went to work proving Glenn Industries' board of directors were involved in illegal dealings. He found enough proof to ruin the company, and leave Heather with no choice but to marry him. Foggy saw what Matt was doing was wrong. With the Black Widow's help, he broke up Matt and Heather. Years later, a drunken Heather called Matt for help. When he learned she was lying, he angrily left and ignored her. Days later, she hanged herself. Karen pursued an acting career in L.A., but ended up a porn star hooked on heroin. She sold out Daredevil's secret identity; information that eventually reached the Kingpin. The Kingpin of crime, took a piece of every illegal deal on the East Coast. It was Fisk who systematically destroyed every piece of Matt Murdock's life; who was indirectly responsible for the deaths of Elektra and Jack Murdock; who knew Murdock is Daredevil, but never told anyone, just to play power games with the hero. Matt took Karen back and they built a life together. Typhoid Mary was the living embodiment of the Madonna/whore complex. Mary was a sweet but frightened woman who had been a successful actress. Typhoid was the trashy, cruel killer with telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers. The Kingpin hired her to make Matt Murdock fall in love with her, and then drive him crazy. Typhoid Mary succeeded in getting Matt to cheat on Karen Page and nearly beat him to death. Glorianna O'Breen was an Irish photojournalist who met Matt when he fought an IRA terrorist. But Matt's decent into poverty and madness, brought about by the Kingpin, pushed her away. She later moved in with Foggy Nelson. Years later, Glorianna was killed by Victor "Kruel" Krueller, a madman trying to remember his past by beating witnesses to his attempted murder. Matt created an imaginary twin brother, Mike Murdock, to protect his secret identity. He would often pretend to be "Mike" to act like the confident, cocky Daredevil for his friends. "Mike" would die in a fight, allowing Matt to become the "new" Daredevil. The Kingpin destroyed Matt's life, taking away his home and livelihood. But Matt put his life back together. He opened a free law clinic in Hell's Kitchen where he lived with the newly returned Karen Page. Matt's secret identity was threatened by a New York tabloid. Though he protected himself, he still faked his death. Even Foggy and Karen were fooled. Matt now lived as a street hustler named Jack Batlin. He kept fighting crime as Daredevil, this time with an armored costume and a meaner attitude. This led to an identity crisis, although he eventually overcame this and cleared up rumors of his identity, subsequently beginning work at a law firm run by Nelson's estranged mother. Guardian Devil, Identity revealed and eventual Breakdown Mysterio was one of Spider-Man's most persistent enemies. But when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, he conceived an elaborate "final performance". Although he initially planned to target Spider-Man, when he read reports about the new wall-crawler, he dismissed Spider-Man as a target, seeing no point in driving a 'clone' insane. Recalling a prior confrontation with Daredevil, he decided to turn his attention to Murdock after paying the Kingpin for information, seeing in Daredevil a kindred spirit as both were 'second stringers' with little reputation outside their homes. With Fisk's information, Mysterio devised an elaborate plot to pretend that the Second Coming was taking place, leaving Daredevil in the custody of an infant who had been reportedly identified as both the new Christ and the Antichrist, Daredevil also being tricked into coming in contact with an associate-suggestive toxin that would make him violent if anyone suggested that the child was innocent with the toxin being both odorless and tasteless so Daredevil could not tell he was drugged. At the same time, Foggy Nelson was framed for murder and Karen Page was tricked into believing that she had AIDS due to her old porn star career. Despite having been pushed to breaking point, with Dr. Strange's help, the toxin was removed, and Murdock overcame Mysterio's traps and illusions, bluntly informing the villain that his entire plot was nothing more than B-movie cliches and old tricks. With nothing left to live for, Beck committed suicide. Although still shaken by Karen's death, a conversation with Spider-Man helped Matt see that the baby he had saved represented something positive that had come from this whole mess, inspiring him to use Karen's life insurance- which she had asked him to use on something that would benefit him rather than give it to charity- to restart Nelson & Murdock. Maya Lopez was born deaf. She also had the gift to recreate any physical motion she sees. The Kingpin used her in another plot to destroy Matt Murdock. First, he arranged Matt to meet her, knowing Matt was lonely after the recent death of Karen Page. Then he tricked Maya into thinking Daredevil killed her father. Maya created the identity of Echo and fought Daredevil. She didn't know he was Matt and he didn't know why she now hated him. Matt soon explained himself and Maya attacked the Kingpin. She left him blinded for many months. Murdock was outed by the press as Daredevil. He publicly denied this and sued the paper. The latest woman in Matt's life was Milla Donovan. Like Matt, Donovan was blind. Matt saved her life and a year later they were married. Milla eventually learned their marriage may have be part of Matt's mental breakdown. She filed for an annulment. Murdock continued to fight crime, ultimately defeating Wilson Fisk and claiming the title of "Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen", preventing any crime from being committed in the area, although Matt's own mental state was rapidly going downhill after the death of his true love, his lies to the public, and assuming the alias of his greatest enemy. During this time frame, Matt was briefly invited to join the New Avengers when he aided them in the latest attempted break-out from the Raft, but refused the offer because he didn't want to affect their reputations in the public eye , although he did suggest Maya as a replacement member . Matt was eventually captured by the FBI and sent to prison for his actions. Foggy Nelson was believed to have been killed and a Daredevil impostor was sighted. Matt learned the Kingpin, Bullseye, and Punisher were also serving time. An attempt at a breakout was made by Black Tarantula. Matt was able to stop Fisk and Bullseye and saved the warden. He and Punisher then escaped. The impostor was confronted, revealing himself as Iron Fist and that he had been hired to do so. The two and Ben Urich searched for information. The employer seemed to be an injured but very much alive Foggy Nelson. Daredevil then set out to Europe to trace the figure who had had Foggy killed and employed a fake Daredevil. Much to his surprise, this was the Kingpin's wife Vanessa Fisk, who was dying after she killed her son and wanted revenge on Daredevil, who, along with Kingpin, she blamed for her situation. She offered to solve his secret identity problems once and for all if Matt would corrupt himself by fighting as a lawyer to free Kingpin from prison. Matt refused, but Vanessa had already set her plan in motion, having the FBI director who imprisoned Daredevil killed, leaving a suicide note saying he had framed Matt. Matt was able to return to his life in New York City, reunited with Foggy and Milla. Matt decided to honor Vanessa's last wish out of respect for the person she used to be before the Kingpin's influence corrupted her and had the charges against the Kingpin revoked, although he lost his U.S. citizenship and left the country. Vanessa died of her terminal illness. Hell to Pay With the charges against him for being Daredevil cleared, Matt decided to move his office to a new location due to constant threats from his enemies and resumed his life as a lawyer with Foggy and Becky Blake where their law firm would not be listed in the phone book and take referrals only to help avoid being easily located. Matt also moved to a different apartment as well. Disaster struck when he went up against the new crime boss The Hood. Mister Fear who was working with him at the time, poisoned Milla with a psychedelic drug which he did with the help of Lily Lucca, a young woman in love with Matt whom he met while in Europe. This put Milla into a mental institution with Matt accepting the fact that he ruined Milla's life when Mr. Fear told him there was no cure for her. Out of grief for what happened, Murdock accidentally had sex with Dakota North and recently he went up against Lady Bullseye and The Hand, where in her civilian disguise as a Lawyer, Lady Bullseye showed the pictures of Matt and Dakota together to Milla's parents, resulting in them being granted full custody of their daughter with Matt regretting that he had betrayed his wife. Matt decided to sign for divorce. The Devil's Hand A drunken, blind and immortal sensei Master Izo targeted Murdock in his war against The Hand - and Murdock was forced to team up with his old enemy; the Kingpin to take the Hand down. However, the price that was paid for this, is that this agreement combined with his ever-growing irrational behavior resulted in Foggy firing Matt from the firm when he found out about the arrangement. The Kingpin attempted to betray him, but Murdock beat him and his assassin, Lady Bullseye, and seized control of the Hand, with Izo's help on the condition that they are to never be involved with either Lady Bullseye or the Kingpin again. Lady Bullseye, sent by the Kingpin, killed two associates of Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. director and leader of the superhuman community. Enraged, Osborn sent his to assassin, Hawkeye (the original Bullseye), to kill Daredevil, whom he suspected was responsible for the kill. Bullseye lured Daredevil to a trap, detonating a bomb in an apartment building full of families that were holding out against an OsCorp development site. Pushed to the brink by Osborn and Bullseye's acts, Daredevil rallied his associates in The Hand to "send a message" - and take back the streets of New York from Osborn's corruption. He then traveled to Japan to unite the five warlords of the Hand while a splinter group worked to corrupt his soul. Murdock returned to New York City and built a large fortress over the spot where Bullseye destroyed the apartment building and called it Shadowland. Shadowland When Daredevil erected his fortress, it began to unsettle some of the heroes, like the Avengers. Bullseye entered the fortress and challenged Murdock to a battle. Murdock arrived dressed in a new black Daredevil costume and ordered a group of ninjas to attack. Bullseye defeated all of these ninjas, but soon faced Murdock himself. Murdock brutally broke both his arms and then used a sai to stab Bullseye through the chest; effectively killing him. Although Daredevil was possessed by The Beast due to actions by Snakeroot, it is unclear whether Bullseye's murder was an action of Daredevil's own will. After the final battle- where he was cured of the Beast thanks to Iron Fist striking him with a 'chi punch' that healed the spiritual damage the Beast had caused to his soul-, Matt left New York on a journey to mentally re-train himself that would place him back on the right path by rediscovering himself, while Black Panther took over his role as the protector of Hell's Kitchen. Daredevil: Reborn During that same time, Matt wandered in Mexico to escape his life as a hero, but despite his best effort to stay out of heroics, he ended up foiling a corrupt police force operating in the small New Mexico town, saving its residents in the process and defeating a local drug lord named Calavera whom the cops were working for. Though Calavera's mysterious telepathic abilities which exploited Murdock's fears of his past mistakes, this ordeal left him reassured in himself, his abilities and his duties as Daredevil, after which he was able to defeat Calavera. Matt since then had made his way back to New York City to rebuild both his superhero and legal careers. Restarting his career Moving his law office to Hamilton Heights, Matt Murdock officially made his return as Daredevil by foiling the kidnapping of a young girl at a Mafia Wedding by the The Spot. However in the first case since his return, Matt's presence compromises the case of defending a Muslim named Ahmed Jobrani who is the owner of a small electronics store in a case of police brutality, but it also turns into a media circus due to the past allegations of Matt being Daredevil. Daredevil is also attacked by Captain America who wants to bring him in due to his actions in the Shadowland incident. Luckily Matt convinced Steve to let him be for the moment after he realized that Steve Rogers' rash action of attempting to arrest him had to do with Bucky Barnes' recent trial and that Steve did not want this to reflect back on him due to being America's top cop. Daredevil discovered that a sound based clone of Klaw was responsible for Mr. Jobrani's troubles, however given that no other lawyer would accept the case and that he couldn't serve as a trial lawyer because of the Daredevil allegations, Matt was forced to change Nelson and Murdock's business strategy, where he and Foggy would have to teach their clients how to represent themselves in court as consultants. In his next mission involving a wrongful termination case, Daredevil discovered that it had to do with several terrorist organizations whose data was stored electronically in a device called the Omegadrive that was created with the use of the Unstable Molecules in a piece of the Fantastic Four's costume that was recovered from one of their battles. Despite having been beaten by the Bruiser earlier and in no position to fight, Daredevil talks his way out of it by stating to each group's representatives that one of them would have to kill each other to get the device and would end up starting a gang war, which wouldn't happen if Daredevil was allowed to leave and take all the blame for what happened and make himself a target instead. During the events that transpired on Fear Itself, Daredevil assisted the heroes against the threat of The Serpent, including safeguarding the lives of Squirrel Girl and Danielle Cage who were under siege at the Avengers Mansion. As a reward, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones managed to convince Daredevil to join the New Avengers. Afterwards he assisted Spider-Man when Black Cat was framed with the theft of a Wi-Fi Holographic Projector and recovered the device from the hands of Black Spectre's gang. In the end he received a passionate exchange from Felicia as a reward. Although this relationship was a plot by Black Spectre to use the Black Cat to get the Omega drive back, Felicia left Matt a note warning him about what was happening before going into hiding . | Powers= Superhuman Senses: Daredevil has superhuman senses of smell, taste, touch, balance, and hearing. *'Superhuman Sense of Touch': Daredevil's sense of touch is so acute that his finger can feel the faint impressions of ink on a printed page allowing him to read by touch, though laminated pages prevent him from touching and thus reading the ink impressions at a much faster pace than a normal person would be able to read. The rest of his skin is equally sensitive, enabling him by concentration to feel minute temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere around him. Even with his senses of smell and hearing blocked, he can feel the presence of a person standing five feet away from him simply by his or her body heat and disturbance of air. A side effect of his sense of touch is Daredevil's ability to manipulate his muscles and internal organs. The sense of touch is not just external, but internal too (central nervous system), thereby giving him the ability to have total body control, increasing his strength and reflexes to near peak human levels and increasing his agility to enhanced human levels. *'Superhuman Sense of Smell': Daredevil's sense of smell is so acute that he can distinguish between identical twins at twenty feet by minute differences in smell. He can detect odors of an atmospheric concentration of thirty parts per million. Further, his ability to remember smells enables him to identify any person he has spent at least five minutes with by smell alone, no matter how he or she might try to camouflage his or her natural odor. His powers of concentration are such that he can focus upon a single person's smell and follow it through a crowd of people at a distance of fifty feet. *'Superhuman Sense of Hearing': Daredevil's sense of hearing enables him to detect an acoustic pressure change of one decibel at a pressure level of seven decibels (whereas the lowest threshold for average human hearing is twenty decibels.) He can hear a person's heartbeat at a distance of over twenty feet, or people whispering on the other side of a standard soundproofed wall. Through practice, Daredevil is able to control his hearing acuity, mentally blocking out specific sounds like his own breathing and heartbeat, all ambient sounds to a normal human level of perception, or all sounds but a particular sound he is concentrating upon. :*''Lie Detection: Daredevil can tell whether a person is lying by listening to changes in his or her heartbeat (though he can be fooled by a pacemaker or those able to control their own heartbeat.) :*Person Identification: Daredevil can identify people by the specific patterns of their heartbeats. *'Superhuman Sense of Taste': Daredevil's sense of taste enables him to detect the number of grains of salt on a pretzel. His ability to remember tastes enables him to determine every ingredient of a food or drink he tastes, as long as there are at least twenty milligrams of that substance present. *'Superhuman Sense of Balance': It is a common misconception that balance isn't a sense, but Daredevil's balance centers give him equilibrium on par with Spider-Man. '''Radar Sense': Daredevil can also sense the proximity and arrangement of objects about himself. According to one theory, Daredevil's "radar sense" functions via his brain's generation of energy within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The signal emanates from sending regions of his brain, after which it travels outward, bounces off objects around him, and returns to receiving regions of his brain. Another theory is that this sense functions more closely to sonar in which Daredevil hears the faint echoes of sounds as they bounce off nearby objects. His sense may operate by a combination of these techniques or by other, unknown means. In any event, via this ability, Daredevil synthesizes a very close analogue of three-dimensional human sight. After he lost the Radar, Matt's instructor Stick retaught him his Radar/Senses through special training. Stick told Matt the radiation gave him a "free ride" but now he must develop it like everyone else. Its resolution is not very fine, probably on the order of several feet at a distance of one hundred feet. By repositioning his head and adding input from his other senses, Daredevil is able to resolve the image of an average flagpole (three-inch cylinder) at a distance of over eighty feet. Telepathy: Due to Stick's training Daredevil has displayed minor telepathic abilities. Former Powers *'Demonic Powers': While he was possessed by The Beast during the Shadowland arc, Matt's physical abilities combined with his combat capabilities were enhanced to where he could overpower fellow martial artists Iron Fist and Shang-Chi, both of which whose combat skills are on par with Matt's. He also gained other demonic abilities as well, such as regeneration and possible immortality having surviving from being stabbed by Wolverine's claws. After the Beast was removed, Daredevil's physical abilities returned to their original statistics. | Abilities = Gifted Intellect: Matt has a high IQ; he's an accomplished strategist as well as an expert in interrogation, disguise, medicine, science and detective work. Expert Detective: Daredevil has shown to be an expert detective using his intellect to figure out complex problems and hyper-senses to find clues and evidence to crime scenes. Expert Tracker: With the aide of his hyper-senses Matt is able to track objects and people from miles away with ease. Interrogation Expert: Matt uses many different interrogation methods to extract information from criminals. His knowledge of criminology and torture is unerring and often overwhelming. As a lawyer, cross-examining a witness or the defendant is a very vital skill set to interrogation. Matt is also more than likely an expert or at least highly trained in the use and interpretation of polygraph testers. Professional Lawyer: He is a skilled lawyer, specializing in criminal justice. Master Acrobat: Daredevil is classed superb-Olympic athlete, gymnast, acrobat, and aerialist due to constant training and exercise since his preteens. His reflexes and agility are equally remarkable and are on par with the finest human athletes. Weapons Proficiency: Thanks to his martial arts training, Matt is extremely proficient in wielding various different weapons. Since Ninjutsu is the only identified discipline that teaches weapons, it would indicate he is trained in the use of most Japanese-themed melee weaponry. Expert Marksman: He is very dead on accurate in throwing most projectile-like weaponry along with his sticks. Expert Stick Fighter: Matt is an expert in wielding all types of stick weapons which include staffs, batons, nunchaku, and paired short sticks due to training from Stick. Master Martial Artist: Daredevil has also been very thoroughly trained in the ninja arts by Stick, a senior master and member of the secret order The Chaste. Nick Fury, former director of S.H.I.E.L.D, commented that there are only a handful of individuals that know what Matt Murdock knows, referring to the Chaste. Stick helped Daredevil control his powers and taught him valuable fighting techniques with stealth, vanishing, to even life-energy(chi/ki)control. Matt is well educated in the functioning of the human body as well as martial arts techniques that target pressure points enabling him to paralyze limbs of an individual's body or the entire body altogether. He's disabled eye sight, speech, induced pain, and even has knowledge of pressure points inducing death. Daredevil's fighting style blends Boxing with Ninjutsu, Judo/Jujutsu and Aiki-Jujutsu, but he had been trained in several styles of Kung Fu, Savate, various styles of Karate, Muay Thai, Hapkido, Filipino martial & stick fighting arts, and Capoeira to varying degrees by Stick to compliment Matt's strengths as he has been seen employing other sophisticated techniques such as jumping and ground-level kicks and jumping takedowns. Being that Ninjutsu seems to be the martial art that Matt seems to have mastered the most, he more than likely possesses at least a grandmastership level rank black belt(at least 10th degree)in Ninjutsu. His skills have proven so exceptional so as to enable him to easily defeat or stalemate some of the greatest fighters on Earth. He has fought opponents such as the Black Panther, Taskmaster, Sabretooth, and Wolverine to standstills, even impaling Wolverine with a sword while the mutant was in a feral state due to brainwashing by the terrorists known as Hydra. Devout Catholic: Matt's true source of his strength and success as a crime-fighter and superhero is his dedication to his religious practice and it's philosophical tenets. As a devout Roman Catholic, Matt has the mixed benefits and access to certain resources and contacts/allies through the Catholic parishes of Hell's Kitchen (modern day Clinton). As a lawyer, Matt can also access additional assets in the form of safehouses and sanctuary of the Church for his clients should local law enforcement resources become either compromised and or cannot be relied upon in witness protection cases. Matt also can make use of contacts in the form of the Catholic Clergy giving Matt vital information regarding the movements of street gangs, the various mafia of the NYC area, pimps, and other elements of the criminal underworld in order to allow Matt to be more successful in battling the criminals of Hell's Kitchen. | Strength = For a "normal" human, Matt has demonstrated remarkable physical strength. Daredevil is an Olympic-level weightlifter and possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build that exercises intensively and regularly. Matt has demonstrated that he can lift and handle a 400 lbs. barbell as though it were fifty pounds, has overturned a limo full of people, and has picked up and used a mail drop-box as a blunt instrument. At his peak, Daredevil possesses sufficient strength to press lift approximately 450 lbs. | Weaknesses = *'Radar Sense Limitations': Daredevil is unable to discern pictures or video images, and he can only guess at colors based on the amount of heat they are absorbing or reflecting. If anyone or anything is not emitting anything that would trigger his heightened senses Daredevil wouldn't be able to detect it, such as Mysterio's hallucinogenic toxin, which was devoid of taste or smell, or prior to his capture by the F.B.I., when a sniper bullet fired outside the range of his sense of hearing was able to badly injure him. He can't target objects that are moving too fast even if they are in the range of his senses, such as Spider-Man. *'Radar Sense Disruption': Daredevil's superhuman senses render him extraordinarily vulnerable to excessive sound, odors, etc., which can temporarily weaken his Radar Sense or if he is bombarded by too much sound at once, Daredevil can easily be immobilized, which causes him great pain and leaves him disoriented. Once the disruptive effects wear off, Daredevil's Radar Sense is able to return to its normal calibration. Crowds of people or too many objects around him''Daredevil (vol. 3) #1'' creates too many sensory impressions for Daredevil to sort through, making it harder to detect any oncoming enemy attacks. *'Non-Superhuman Physical Conditioning': As Daredevil's powers do not give him any kind of superhuman physical ability, Daredevil is as susceptible to physical injury and disease as any other normal human, often having to rely more on strategy than strength when up against a superhuman opponent. *'Blindness' : Daredevil is blind. While his Radar Sense helps him navigate, this becomes a problem for Daredevil to navigate and track his opponent when his heightened senses are scrambled or can't detect anything which diminishes Daredevil's ability to be able to fight back when in the middle of a battle. | Equipment = * Daredevil has used four costumes in the course of his career as a crimefighter: his original yellow-and-black costume, his modern red costume, a black-and-red armored costume that was used temporarily, and a newer black-and-red costume which was used during the Shadowland saga. When Murdock experienced a psychological break, each of his first three costumes came to be focuses for three distinct separate, distinct personalities within Murdock. Since that time, Murdock has resolved his psychological problems, and now exclusively uses the red costume. The horns on his costume are antennae that can pick up radiowaves, allowing them to serve as a police scanner. While possessed by The Beast the horns on his costume were transformed into larger devil horns when it fully awakened, and were reverted back to normal when The Beast was removed from Matt Murdock's body. | Transportation = * Daredevil usually travels by foot across city rooftops through the art of parkour (the art of movement), and by the grappling hook and cable in his billy club. | Weapons = * Matt currently wields a multi-purpose cane that has many different modes. Its initial form is two short sticks held together by an extendable cable. It can be configured into a nunchaku- like weapon to a manrikigusari(a long rope/chain weapon with two weights on its ends), dual short sticks which can be wielded in a pair, staff, or a cable with a grappling hook. The weapon can also be adjusted to combine both sticks into a larger stick. The weapon is held by a holster on the side of Matt's left leg. Former weapons * Daredevil's billy club is a multi-purpose weapon, it has a retractable microphone, a miniature tape recorder, chamber for firing projectiles, and a wire cable which allows the club to be used as a grappling hook, it can also be used as either as a baton or a cable. * He also wore wrist blades on his arms during his time in The Hand, but he no longer uses them. | Notes = | Trivia = * Daredevil and the Black Widow were comics' first unmarried couple to live together. * Murdock's favorite spot in the city is the top of the Chrysler Building. * Daredevil was portrayed by Ben Affleck in the (2003) motion picture Daredevil. Previously, Rex Smith played the role in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), and the late Edward Laurence Albert voiced the character in the 1994 Spider-Man animated series. The character also appeared in the Fantastic Four (1994 TV series) voiced by Bill Smitrovich. He also appeared as a cameo in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. * In the video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Daredevil appears as a playable character. In his simulator disk, Daredevil tracks down Bullseye on the Omega Base and has to protect Elektra from him. | Links = * Daredevil article at Wikipedia * DD Resource * Daredevil screenplay (unproduced) * Official webpage at Marvel.com * Daredevil bio at MarvelDirectory * Man Without Fear fan site * The religion of Matt Murdock, Daredevil * "Secrets, lies - and lawyers!", Douglas Wolk, Salon.com, January 5, 2006. Retrospective of the Bendis/Maleev run. * Marvel Toonzone * [http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/t/trial-of-incredible-hulk.html Stomp Tokyo Video Reviews - The Trial of the Incredible Hulk] * Daredevil resource }} Category:Captain Universe Category:Lawyers Category:Blind Characters Category:Defenders members Category:Catholic Characters Category:Superhuman Senses Category:Radar Sense Category:Hypergeusia Category:Hyperosmia Category:Hyperacusia Category:Hyperesthesia Category:Hand members Category:Sonic Weakness Category:New Avengers members Category:Avengers members Category:Vigilantes